Apple Inc.
Uplink In-Order Delivery for QOS Flow Offloaded in 5GC Multi-RAT Dual Connectivity

Abstract:

Systems and methods of providing uplink in-order packet delivery of a QoS flow offloaded in a 5G network are described. An uplink forwarding tunnel is established between a source and target node after a determination is made to offload a QoS flow of a UE to the target node. The source node receives a SDAP PDU from the UE that contains an end marker and, in response, sends a GTP-U end marker packet to the target node via the uplink forwarding tunnel. The target node buffer packets associated with the QoS flow received from the UE after establishment of the uplink forwarding tunnel until the GTP-U end marker packet is received from the target node via the uplink forwarding tunnel and, in response, sends the buffered packets to the 5GC.